"The Wonder Years - No Closer to Heaven" Amazing, Possibly Perfect

 

    I love The Wonder Years. One of the first concerts I ever attended was the 10 year anniversary tour for The Greatest Generation, and for a while a part of me thought that might be my favourite album, deep down I always knew it was this one. I mean most of my favourite The Wonder Years songs came from this album, and the remaster that was released last year only really solidified that opinion. So, with the 10 year anniversary tour for this album raging on, I'm set to once again see The Wonder Years very soon, so it's time for me to revisit one of the best pop-punk albums of the 2010's in my mind, and one of my favourite albums of all time in general. So without further ado, my track-by-track review.

No Closer to Heaven - The Wonder Years

Brothers & - 70/100 I don't particularly have strong feelings on this track, if you can call it that. It's really just a buildup to Cardinals, which serves and feels like the real intro track to this album anyways.

Cardinals - 95/100 I love it when Soupy yells on this album, it's just that perfect blend of rage and sorrow that I find just irresistible. Lyrically, I love songs like this on the entire album, you can just feel the self-loathing bleed through the lyrics and sometimes it resonates with you more than you'd think.

A Song For Patsy Cline - 85/100 once again The Wonder Years employ  an excellent harsh-soft dynamic to this song, which has a great bridge by the way, not my favourite off the album, but still good.

I Don't Like Who I Was Then - 100/100 I just love yelling out the lyrics to this song, and anytime it comes on in a concert it's an amazing feeling. The bridge, the lyrics, the angst, it's all here. One of the first The Wonder Years songs I liked and I only enjoy it more each day.

Cigarettes & Saints - 85/100 The first of the "slow" songs on this album in my mind. Yet it still has that righteous fury that's sort of permeating throughout the entire album. This was another song that took me a couple years to finally enjoy and get once I started listening to slower music again, because I do love Soupy's writing on this song.

The Bluest Things on Earth 85/100 I love the way this song starts, all guns blazing with Soupy yelling off of the bat, it's sublime.

A Song for Ernest Hemingway - 100/100 Easy perfect score for me. Not only the best song off of this album, but might be my favourite song of all time. Whether it be the slow acoustic version or this one. For a very long time this was my go-to sad song, because it  just works, and I am truly excited to hear this one live.

Thanks for the Ride - 95/100 I mean who can't relate tothe feeling of losing touch with someone you were close to?

Stained Glass Ceiling - 80/100 I would say the second half of this album is worse than the first half, because it does slow itself a decent amount, but as the years have passed I have found myself enjoying this half more and more.

I Wanted So Badly To Be Brave - 80/100 A good track but probably one of the weaker ones considering all of the other songs surrounding it.

You In January 100/100 When I heard the band play the acoustic version of this song live the band said multiple proposals happened during this song on the tour and I can see it to be honest. Genuinely a great and emotional track.

Palm Reader - 85/100 I think this song works quite well as the pseudo-closer to this album. A real nice way to tie the entire album up thematically.

No Closer To Heaven - 85/100 It took until the remaster for me to enjoy this song. I remember I was trying to figure out if the band actually said the song title in the album, and completely missed out on the fact that this song exists. 

Final Score: 95/100

    This album probably deserves a 100 from me honestly. I don't really believe in the concept of perfect albums, like it can't literally be perfect, but I think this is about close to perfect as you can get from an album. I mean the title might be right, there might be no album closer to heaven than this one. It really is that great. I don't have a list of my top 10 albums of all time, but I don't doubt that this album would probably be in contention for one of those illustrious spots, that's how good it is. I mean I don't think It's for everyone for sure. It is very much a pop-punk/emo album and if you can't get over that fact then there is no shot at you being able to enjoy any song other than You In January at best, and maybe No Closer to Heaven. Either way, to me, this album is worth giving a shot to, it's just that good.


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